


Marauder's Map: Wanted

by vogue91



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 18:12:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13013364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vogue91/pseuds/vogue91
Summary: The map.He had lost the map.





	Marauder's Map: Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts: Weasley twins, Marauder's Map, Room of Requirement, "You're an idiot."

Darn it, darn nit, darn nit.

George wasn’t going to forgive him ever, he was sure of it.

But he didn’t have any choice, if only he could have...

He sighed. No, he didn’t have any justification. He had betrayed all he and George represented in that school, and all Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs had passed down to them.

_He had lost the Map._

Him, Fred Weasley, had lost the power they held over Hogwarts.

He didn’t know how he could’ve been so stupid.

He walked slowly toward Gryffindoor’s Tower, ignoring Peeves who was trying to mess with him with a coat of armour.

He didn’t feel at all like joking, not today. He muttered quickly the password to the Fat Lady, then he tried to slip stealthily over the Common Room, without having anyone notice him.

He had almost reached the stairs that brought to the dormitories, when he was stopped by a voice identical to his.

“Fred! I’ve been looking for you for over an hour, where the hell have you been?” his brother asked him.

The redheaded froze, turning slowly and trying desperately to appear as innocent as possible.

“Georgie! I’m sorry, I’ve been with Angelina this afternoon.” he said, nonchalant. His brother frowned.

“Yes, you told me that. But she’s been back for over half an hour, what have you been doing in the meantime?” he insisted. The other lowered his eyes and scratched the back of his head, while his brother kept staring at him with an eyebrow raised.

“Well... you know, it’s quite a curious thing, I was walking down the hallway, when Peeves got close and...” he stammered, before George interrupted him.

“Fred, damn it! I know when you’re lying because, guess what? you’ve got the same expression I have when you do it!” he scolded him, tilting his head. “Will you tell me what happened? If you go on like this I’ll think it’s something horrible.” Fred hazarded a sly smile.

“Like?” he asked, innocently.

“I don’t know... did you kill someone? Did you become a Death Eater? Are you McGonagall’s new boyfriend?” he rattled off, then he couldn’t help but laughing.

“If you put it that way... no, nothing so atrocious.” Fred said, starting to twist his fingers. “Ivelostthemaraudersmap.” he mumbled so quickly that his brother couldn’t understand him completely.

“You what?” he asked, aloud. He was starting to get annoyed, and he hadn’t liked at all the way Fred had spoken.

“I’ve lost the Marauder’s Map.” he repeated, whispering the words like he was confessing to the worst of crimes.

And that’s exactly how George seemed to think of it.

“You’ve lost... you’ve lost?” he opened his eyes wide. “You’ve lost the Marauder’s Map? Fred, are you crazy? How did it happen? Where?” he went full on mad. Fred went on the other side of the couch, defensive.

“George, calm down, please! I didn’t do it on purpose, it just happened!” he tried to explain. They both looked around, and noticing that half of the Gryffindor present was staring at them they moved aside, closer to the stairs.

“Would you care to explain?” George asked as soon as they were far from unwanted attention. Fred sighed.

“Well, you know I had to turn in that paper on animal Transfiguration to professor McGonagall, don’t you?” George, despite everything, laughed.

“The one you had to do over because you got a T?” he reminded him, earning a little affectionate blow to his head.

“Exactly.” muttered Fred. “I’ve asked Angelina to help, she got an O for that paper. You know, she’s really good with Transfiguration and...”

“Fred! I couldn’t care less about the analysis of Johnson’s school course, I just want to know how the hell you lost the map!” he scolded him.

“Ok, ok. So, we went to the Room of Requirement, and...” he tried to get back to it, but his brother didn’t let him go on.

“The Room of Requirement? And why would you do such a thing?” he asked, confused. Fred took a deep breath and kept his remonstrations for himself, thinking he wasn’t in a position to complain.

“We couldn’t go to the library! The two of us have been sort of forbidden to enter it since the second year.” George frowned.

“Madam Pince is still mad at us for that time we brought to life the books in the Forbidden Section?” Fred smiled and nodded vigorously, as if he was very proud of that day.

“Anyway... she was teaching me how the spell worked, but at some point we got… erk... distracted.” he explained, blushing.

His twin turned up his nose.

“Okay, I don’t want the details. This still doesn’t explain how you lost the map.”

“I had it in my uniform’s pocket. And... it must’ve fallen down when I took it off.” the boy finally admitted, clearly embarrassed. George glared at him for a few seconds, then he shrugged.

“Well, I thought something worse had gone down. After all, we just need to get back to the Room of Requirement and take it.”

When he saw that his brother wasn’t talking and that his expression wasn’t giving any sign of relax, he gasped. “What aren’t you telling me?” he asked. Fred sighed again, bringing his hands through his hair.

“Do you think I haven’t thought about that? As soon as I’ve noticed the Map wasn’t in my pocket anymore I left Angelina in the middle of the hallway, without an explanation, and I went back there immediately.” he said. “But it had disappeared.” he confessed.

“Fred Weasley, you are an idiot! Tell me, what are we supposed to do now? Right now the Map is in the hands of who knows who and you’re so calm? Do you have any idea about who could’ve found it?” George burst out, his face the same colour of his hair.

“Not at all.” his twin stated, lowering his eyes. “I’m sorry, Georgie.” he murmured, thinking it really wasn’t in his nature to apologize. But this time he had to admit he had crossed the line. His brother was right, the Map could’ve been in anyone’s hands and them... well, they didn’t have the means to look for it.

Yeah, George was right. He had been a complete idiot.

 

~

 

“Mr. Weasley, your paper if you please.” said professor McGonagall as soon as the lesson ended. Fred couldn’t concentrate, he kept thinking about the Map and where it could’ve ended up, and as a consequence the scowling teacher had to call to him a notable amount of times before he stood up and took the parchment to her.

“Well, I’d say it’s enough for today. You’re free to go.” the woman said, after giving a quick look to Fred’s paper. “Not you, Weasley. I have something to say to you.” she raised an eyebrow facing the twins, who froze close to the door, a questioning look on their faces.

“You’re gonna have to make a decision, professor. What Weasley?” George asked, cheerful. Professor McGonagall brought a hand on her temple and sighed.

“Not that I wouldn’t have a lot of things to say to the both of you, but I think that for today I’ll settle with Mr. Fred Weasley.” she answered, cold. Chuckling, George left the room, while his brother went slowly toward McGonagall’s desk, looking like he was walking to the gallows.

“I’ve turned in the paper.” he said before the teacher had the time to say anything. She sighed theatrically, glaring at him.

“I thank you for the trust you put in my memory, Weasley, I know you’ve turned in the paper, but that’s not what I want to talk about.” she waved her wand elegantly, until an old piece of parchment fluttered in front of her. Fred found it horribly familiar.

“What’s that?” he asked, panicking. His voice was trembling and it betrayed him, but he knew all too well that professor McGonagall wasn’t going to believe him anyway.

“Actually, since it belongs to you, I was hoping you could tell me that.” she replied, severe. “Yesterday I’ve tried to find out what it was, but no matter what spell I tried, it kept giving me answer which I’d call... inappropriate.” she went on, slightly blushing. Fred shrugged, trying to keep his cool.

“It doesn’t belong to me, professor.”

“So you’re telling me that you weren’t in the Room of Requirement yesterday?” the boy snorted, miserable, and he shook his head.

“No, I’m not denying that.” he said, incredibly annoyed. He felt like his chances out getting out of this were getting more and more slim.

“Very well. Then all I have to do now it’s explaining to you what’s gonna happen: either you tell me what weird contraption this is, and you’ll get two weeks of detention... or you don’t and the detention goes up to two months.” the redheaded blanched, leaning onto the desk like he had lost the ability to stand.

“Two months?” he chocked. The professor gave him quite the sly smile, and stood up.

“It’s not your only option, Mr. Weasley.”

Fred pondered. Of course it was his only option. He had disappointed his brother losing the Map, he wasn’t going to risk revealing its secrets to Minerva McGonagall who, best case scenario, would have fed them both to a basilisk. And anyway, he owed it to Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, even though he realized this last thought was far from logic.

He took his book, and went towards the door.

“Two months of detention are fine.” he mumbled and got out, without turning to watch the satisfied smirk on his professor’s face.

If one day they’d have managed to retrieve the map, they would’ve signed their names as well.

Messrs George Weasley and Fred the Idiot Weasley.

 

~

 

Two days later, he had just gotten back to his dormitory to change after Quidditch’s practice, right before heading down to McGonagall’s office to serve his time. His brother’s invective was still echoing in his mind, and he knew he wouldn’t have gotten rid of it so easily.

_“Professor McGonagall, Fred? Minerva McGonagall, teacher of Transfiguration, Head of the Gryffindor House? Damn it, Malfoy would’ve been better! Or Ron, or anyone else, but not her!”_

He couldn’t say he had reacted very well to the new.

He laid the filthy uniform on the bed, but he moved it right away when he saw that something had been laid on the blankets. He sat on the bed, removing it bluntly.

His eyes opened wide, and he took the piece of parchment carefully, as if he was afraid of breaking or ruining it.

_The Map._

“I solemnly swear the I am up to no good.” he whispered, as if enchanted from those words he had said a million times already. When he saw Hogwart’s hallways forming on the paper, he couldn’t help but jumping on the bed, screaming.

“Fred? What are you yelling about now?” he heard his brother’s voice coming from the stairs. When George joined him and realized why he was screaming, he started jumping on the bed himself.

“We got it back! Beware, Hogwarts!” he joked, laughing. At this point Fred sat back again, and stared at him questioningly.

“George... you do realize this makes no sense at all, don’t you?” he said, but his brother shrugged.

“We’ll look for an explanation when I’ll be done expressing my joy.” he answered, a full on smile on his face.

Fred, still chuckling, went out of the dormitory and toward the professor’s office.

Of course it was her, there was no other explanation. What Fred really didn’t understand was why she should’ve done such a thing.

No, it made no sense at all.

He knocked lightly on the door, then he went in. McGonagall raised her eyes from some papers, and gave him half a smile.

“Ah Mr. Weasley you’re here, very well. I want you to put an order to all these papers; and please, try to work properly for once.” she said, without leaving him time to say anything. Fred blinked, and stared at her.

“Professor... I just wanted to...” he tried to say, but the woman sighed.

“ _Now_ , Mr. Weasley.” the boy shook his head, and went on the other side of the desk.

“Thank you.” he whispered, barely loud enough to be heard. Professor McGonagall stilled for a split second, then looked him straight in the eyes.

“I don’t have the faintest idea of what you’re talking about.” she said, steadfast, then she went back to her work.

Fred started working too on the papers. He spent the next few hours with a grin that didn’t want to leave his face.

No, George wasn’t going to believe that. Fred couldn’t either.

McGonagall... _human_?

It was definitely something to think about.


End file.
